Narrow Media Solution

A customer deal gone wrong, my department was stuck in a quandary for how to convert a fuser already in production into a narrow media fuser. My task was to find a way to attach a small fan inside the fuser, route the cable, direct the air, and redesign an electrostatic discharge (ESD) circuit. It was similar to the scene in Apollo 13 when the NASA guy walks in the room and says, “We need to make this [square CSM LiOH canister], fit into the hole for this [round LEM canister], using nothing but that.” A fan and rapid prototyped nozzle (that did not attach to anything) were placed in my hand.

I had several conflicting problems and decided to use TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) to conquer them. While sitting in traffic, I realized I did not have to attach the fan to the fuser. Thus the nozzle-bracket was born. The nozzle-bracket not only attached the convergent-divergent nozzle to the fan, but held the fan in place without any screws. The nozzle-bracket then attached to the inside of the fuser. The ESD (electrostatic discharge) circuit was converted from a long, flat design to a more compact sandwich design. Several nozzle and vane experiments were conducted as well as several rounds of thermal testing. My department’s compact and functional design set precedent for several other projects in the company.